YAZBEK Samar
Country: Syria, France
Year of Birth: 1970
Biography
Samar Yazbek is a Syrian writer and journalist. She was born in Jableh, Syria, near Latakia, in 1970, and studied Arabic literature at Latakia university.
Yazbek has been a prominent voice in support of human rights and more specifically women’s rights in Syria. In 2012, she launched Women Now for Development, an NGO based in France that aims at empowering Syrian women economically and socially and at educating children. In 2011, she took part in the popular uprising against the Assad regime, and was forced to exile a few months later.
Awards
In 2010, Yazbek was selected as one of the 39 most promising authors under the age of 40, by Beirut39, a contest organized by the Hay Festival.
In 2012, she was chosen for the prestigious PEN/Pinter Prize “International writer of courage”, in recognition of her book “In the Crossfire: Diaries of the Syrian Revolution”. She was also awarded the Swedish Tucholsky Prize, and the Dutch Oxfam/PEN Prize, in the following year.
In 2016 Yazbek’s literary narrative “The Crossing” was awarded the prestigious French “Best Foreign Book” prize.
Her novel, “The blue pen”, was in the third and final selection of the French Femina award.
“The blue pen” was shortlisted to the National Book Award, New York under the title “Planet of Clay” in 2021.
In 2019, Samar Yazbek was attributed the honorary citizenship by the City of Palermo.
In 2016, she was given the prestigious French medal of the “Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres” by the French ministry of culture.
In 2022, Yazbek was chosen by the Royal Society of Literature as one of its 12 International Writers, along with Anne Carson, Maryse Condé, Yoko Ogawa and Juan Gabriel Vasquez, among others, thereby joining the 12 inaugural awardees of 2021, including Annie Ernaux, David Grossman, Amin Maalouf and Olga Tokarczuk. The RSL international Writers program is an award recognizing the contribution of writers across the globe, celebrating the power of literature to transcend boundaries. New writers are invited to join the program each year.
Her latest novel “Where the wind calls home” is shortlisted to the National Book Award 2024.
Yazbek has published two collections of short stories, seven novels, four non-fiction literary narratives. Her books have been translated in over twenty languages.
Titles
Gaza residents: your presence is a danger to your life | Thakirat al niqsan 2025
The wind’s abode | Maqam al rih 2021
19 women: Tales of resilience from Syria | 19 imra’a: Souriyyat yarwayn 2018
The blue pen | Al macha’a 2017
The crossing | Buwabat ard al aadam 2015
In the crossfire | Taqatoo niran 2012
In her mirrors | Laha maraya 2010
Cinnamon | Ra’ihat al-Qirfa 2008
Clay | Silsal 2005
In the press
“Gaza residents”
“Yazbek latest work…is a vital, harrowing document…a human portrait of one of the most devastating military offensives in recent history.” — The Mirror
“A vital reminder of the ongoing genocide and the almost unimaginable extent of its human costs.” — Bookblast
“It is a searing read, very moving both in the piety so often saving the sanity of these casualties of appalling vengeance, and in their hope for a future.” — The Tablet
“A harrowing book, at once a work of remembrance and a plea for justice.” — Telerama
“Despite all the horrific descriptions, this is above all a book about humanity, about people who, despite their immeasurable suffering, fight for their own lives and the lives of others, and even retain a glimmer of hope. Giving their voices public restores a measure of dignity to these Palestinians.” — Deutschlandfunk Kultur
“…when a Syrian author becomes the voice of Gaza’s survivors… bringing narrative empathy and urgency… aiming to transcend political discourse and bear witness to extreme brutality….” — Le Monde
“A slim book that’s certain to break you, but then it should… Yazbek’s journalism is likely to become a historical document of this cruel campaign of criminal carnage unleashed on a people.” — Irish Independent
“This is not an easy book to read, but it is an essential one.” — Buzz Magazine
“While narrating death and destruction, the witnesses Yazbek spoke with still found a way to illustrate that, in the words of Palestinian poet Rafeef Ziadah, they taught life… Yazbek’s collection of testimonies, spanning the shattered lives of children as young as thirteen to the weary wisdom of the elderly, refutes the diminishment intended by the airdropped leaflets. If the leaflets claim their presence is a danger, Yazbek proves their erasure is the true catastrophe.” — ArabLit
“The winds’ abode”
“Samar Yazbek’s writing evokes Giono… her best novel to date” — Le Monde des Livres
“Through this poetic story told in a remarkable lyrical form, the author provides us with a powerful portrayal of the soul of her fragmented country” — Les Echos
“Samar Yazbek successfully transports Syrian reality, with all its horrors, and in all its splendor, into the living room… The poetic, visual sentences turn this story into a true-to-life film.” — Kif Kif
“In The Winds’ Abode, Samar Yazbek’s writing is exquisitely painful.” — L’Orient Littéraire
“This is the tale of man coalescing with nature, of man as the offspring of nature… Yazbek brings his story to life in a very unique style ” — Al Quds al-Arabi
“Samar Yazbek has written an elegantly wrapped and powerful novel, with a fluid and subtle language, a slow pace and a translucent beauty” — Independant Arabia
“The blue pen”
“The young, mute narrator of this compassionate novel by the author of The Crossing becomes a poignant emblem of the Syrian women confined by war. ” — The Guardian, 2021
“Words can build a better world and repel ugliness” — L’Express, 2018
The “Grace” of Yazbek — Le Monde, 2018
“Did Samar Yazbek write our most important novel?” — Forlagsliv, 2018
“Powerful” “Poignant” — Livres Hebdo, 2018
Yazbek’s Blue Pen “crafts an original voice” “foreign and innovative imagery” — Dagbladet, 2018
“Ingenious character, and a literary approach on the verge of the unimaginable” – GP, Sweden, 2018
“The crossing”
“Formidable narrative” — Le Monde, 2016
“Comparable to Orwell” — Le Nouvel Observateur, 2016
“Colossal” — Libération, 2016
“Remarkable” — Le Figaro, 2016
“Indispensable” — Adfonbladet, 2015
“Yazbek is comparable to Svetlana Alexievich” — SVT, 2015
“Schocking, searing and beautiful” — The Daily Beast, 2015
“Powerful and deeply painful” — The Times Literary Supplement, 2015
“Crosses the line from journalism to high literary art” — The observer, 2015
Cessions
Gaza residents (2025)
Sellerio (Italy, 2025)
Ordfront (Sweden, forthcoming)
Other Press, English (US, forthcoming)
Enderun Tanıtım Hizmetleri Ltd (Turkey, forthcoming)
The wind’s abode (2021)
Green Books (Mayalam / India, 2023)
Nika-Centre Publishing House (Ukraine, forthcoming)
Textofilia (Spanish / Mexico, forthcoming)
Geopoetika Publishing (Serbia, forthcoming)
19 women: Tales of resilience from Syria (2018)
Ordfront (2019, Sweden)
Sellerio (2019, Italy)
Nika-Centre Publishing House (2021, Ukraine)
The blue pen (2018)
Ordfront (2018, Sweden)
Cappelen Damm (2018, Norway)
Ketebe (Turkey, forthcoming)
The crossing (2015)
Nagel & Kimche, Hanser (2015, Germany)
Ordfront (2015, Sweden)
Cappelen Damm (2015, Norway)
Stella Maris (2016, Spain)
Stock (2016, France)
Euthalia (2016, Portugal)
Karakter (2016, Poland)
Kastaniotis (2016, Greece)
Kristeligt Dagblads (2016, Denmark)
Ethir Veliyedu (2016, Tamil / India)
Walkers (2017, Complex Chinese, Taiwan)
Shanghai Translation Pub. House (2018, Simplified Chinese, China)
Prozart (2018, Macedonia)
Green books (2019, Malayalam / India)
Hakusui-Sha (2020, Japan)
Pandora (Romania, forthcoming)
In the crossfire (2012)
Buchet-Chastel (2012, France)
Haus (2012, UK)
Nagel & Kimche, Hanser (2012, Germany)
Nigh & Ditmar (2013, Netherlands)
Timas (2013, Turkey)
In her mirrors (2010)
Castelvecchi (2011, Italy)
Cinnamon (2008)
Castelvecchi (2010, Italy)
Arabia books, Haus (2013, UK)
Buchet-Chastel (2013, France)
Ordfront (2013, Sweden)
Cappelen Damm (2013, Norway)
Nagel & Kimche, Hanser (2014, Germany)
[Updated September 2026]
Author's Works
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